Cornerback Avonte Maddox won a Super Bowl with the Eagles in February and he’ll be trying to knock them off the throne in 2025.
Maddox’s girlfriend posted a picture of him signing a contract with the Lions on social media Friday. Maddox’s agent confirmed, via Jeff McLane of the Philadelphia Inquirer, that his client has signed a one-year deal with the NFC North club.
The move ends a seven-year run in Philadelphia for Maddox. He was a 2019 fourth-round pick and he started 41 of the 81 regular season games he played over that span. He also made six starts in 11 postseason appearances.
Maddox had 270 tackles, four interceptions, three sacks, 36 passes defensed, eight forced fumbles, and a fumble recovery in the regular season. He had 40 tackles and five passes defensed in the postseason.
With the news that Quarterback is coming back this year (due in part to the fact that Receiver fell flat), Michael Holley and I spent time on Friday’s PFT Live looking at the NFL figures we’d most like to see on a reality show.
The picks are in the attached video. Holley led things off with Deion Sanders, who isn’t technically an NFL figure but as a practical matter is. And Deion is entertaining and compelling.
My first pick was a guy who wouldn’t be obvious but who would be a superstar: Bills receiver Keon Coleman.
Coleman is naturally engaging and hilarious. He’s authentic. He’s real. He’s effortlessly funny.
Check out the clip for the other picks. And get ready to learn plenty in July about Joe Burrow, Jared Goff, and Kirk Cousins (again) on the Quarterback series.
One last point, while we have your attention. (If we do.) You can now watch PFT Live on NBC Sports Now. It’s two simple clicks to get to the content. Click here, then click “watch live.”
The Lions have proposed removing the automatic first down for defensive holding and illegal contact fouls. The goal is to remove what the Lions view as an overly punitive outcome, with a five-yard foul being enhanced by the awarding of a first down.
But the removal of the automatic first down will have unintended consequences, in our view.
For starters, the removal of the deterrence that comes from an automatic first down will make defensive holding and illegal contact more likely on third and long. The greater the distance needed, the more likely the defense will strategically risk giving up five yards.
It will become part of the coaching of defensive backs. When in doubt, grab the receiver. If it’s third and 15, it’ll be third and 10 — if a flag is dropped.
That’s the other unintended consequence. If removing the automatic first down causes a proliferation of illegal contact and/or grabbing of receivers before the ball is in the air (and while the quarterback is in the pocket), they won’t all be called. Officials won’t want to bog the game down by repeatedly calling defensive holding and/or illegal contact, even if it’s happening.
The Legion of Boom Seahawks exploited that basic reality of officiating an NFL game. They held and grabbed and dared officials to call it. They didn’t. Which led to a “point of emphasis” (a tactful way of saying to the officials “please do your job”) for 2014.
So it’s one thing to say, “It’s not fair to make defensive holding and illegal contact an automatic first down.” It’s another thing to consider what will happen if it no longer is. There will be more defensive holding and illegal contact. And plenty of those fouls won’t be flagged. And the passing games through the league will be impeded, resulting in fewer yards and fewer points.
Which the league won’t like. Not because the league complains when scoring is down. But because the league blows the horn loudly when scoring is up.
Cornerback Khalil Dorsey will stay in Detroit.
The Lions announced on Thursday that they have re-signed Dorsey. The Lions douple-dipped on secondary moves Thursday as the Dorsey word comes shortly after they announced the signing of veteran corner Rock Ya-Sin.
Dorsey appeared in 27 games and made three starts for the Lions over the last two seasons. He had 25 tackles and three passes defensed in those appearances. Dorsey, who played his first six NFL games for the Ravens in 2020, also handled 16 kickoff returns for Detroit.
Ya-Sin and Dorsey are part of a cornerback group that also includes Terrion Arnold, D.J. Reed, Amik Robertson, Ennis Rakestraw, and Stantley Thomas-Oliver.
Detroit is adding some depth at defensive back.
Per Mike Garafolo of NFL Media, the Lions have agreed to terms with cornerback Rock Ya-Sin.
Ya-Sin spent last season with the 49ers, mainly playing special teams. He appeared in 13 contests for the club, playing 32 percent of special teams snaps and eight percent of defensive snaps in games played.
A Colts second-round pick in 2019, Ya-Sin spent three seasons with the Colts before playing one with the Raiders in 2022, one with the Ravens in 2023, and one with the 49ers.
In 79 games with 39 starts, Ya-Sin has tallied 31 passes defensed with two interceptions.
The Lions have codified the thing about which many have complained over the years: Division champions hosting wild-card teams with better records.
Detroit’s proposal takes the seven playoff teams (four division winners and three wild cards) and seeds them based on record. Winning the division would no longer guarantee a home game and, at worst, the No. 4 spot on the playoff tree.
Although it happens more often than not that the best wild-card team has a better record than the worst division champion, stripping the division champion of its guaranteed home game in the wild-card round would diminish the impact of winning a division. To ensure fairness to all teams, it also would require a reconfiguration of the schedule.
If playoff seeding is going to be determined on a conference-wide basis, there should be more conference games. To be as fair and equitable as possible, each team should play the other 15 teams in the conference, with two (soon to be three . . . then maybe four . . . then maybe five) interconference games.
If the division championship doesn’t guarantee one of the top four spots on the conference playoff tree, why play six games against division rivals? Swap out those three games for more games against other teams in the conference.
Frankly, the fact that three playoff teams are determined without regard to division already makes it important to have more conference games. The current approach has each team playing six games in the division, six games against other teams in the conference, and five interconference games. The schedule rotation, aimed at ensuring each team will host every other team in the league at least one every eight years, is based more on engineering variety and less on determining the best possible teams in each conference, every year.
As mentioned recently regarding the NFC West’s schedule formula for 2025, they’ll each play four games against the teams of the NFC South and four games against the teams of the AFC South. Although one of the four NFC West teams will win the division no matter what, the other three could be better positioned to win wild-card spots based on the potential imbalance in the scheduling formula.
Here’s the point. The current scheduling formula already bakes a certain amount of unfairness into the playoff cake. Turning the playoff tree into a seven-team free-for-all without regard to division championship will make the existing approach even less fair.
If the goal is to award conference playoff seeding based on record, the seven teams that earn those spots should be playing as many of the other teams from the conference as possible. And if that happens, why even have divisions at all?
Which might be the best argument in favor of keeping the current system. Does it lead to situations in which “good” wild-card teams must face “bad” division winners? Yes. But it preserves the significance of becoming the best team in a given division — no matter how bad the division might be in any given year.
The Lions agreed to a one-year deal with defensive end Al-Quadin Muhammad, according to multiple reports.
Muhammad, who turns 30 later this month, played nine games with two starts last season for the Lions. He saw action on 255 defensive snaps.
Muhammad totaled three sacks, 11 tackles and five quarterback hits.
He did not make the Cowboys’ roster out of training camp last season and re-signed to the Lions’ practice squad in early October after Marcus Davenport’s season-ending torn triceps. He served a six-game suspension to start the season for violating the league’s policy on performance enhancing substances.
Muhammad, then a member of the Colts’ practice squad, missed the final five games of the 2023 season.
He has 168 tackles, 15 sacks, 38 quarterback hits, four forced fumbles, two passes defensed and a fumble recovery in his career.
The current structure of the NFL often results in teams with lesser records hosting playoff games, because every division champion is guaranteed one of the top four spots on the conference’s playoff tree. That sparks periodic complaints, when wild-card teams with better records than division champions must play on the road in the postseason.
The Lions, who would have faced that outcome if they’d lose a Week 18 game against the Vikings, have proposed a change to that approach.
The suggestion is a simple one. The seedings for each conference would be determined by record, without regard to whether any team won its division.
Division champions would still get in. They would no longer be guaranteed a home game, and their spot on the playoff tree would be determined relative to the records of the other playoff teams in the conference.
Despite the legitimate gripes regarding the fairness of the current approach, there’s never been any real sense that teams will support a change to the rule. As it stands, each team has a one-in-four chance every year to host a playoff game.
Of course, given that the conference has sixteen teams and four teams land with the top four seeds, there’s still a 25-percent chance each year of being one of the teams that will host a playoff game.
Still, it will take plenty of work for the Lions to get at least 23 other teams to agree. The league generally believes there should be extra meaning to winning a division. Guaranteeing a home game provides it.
The 2025 rules proposals are out. And the Lions have offered a potential rule change for which there had been no advance buzz.
Detroit wants the automatic first down to be eliminated from the rules against defensive holding and illegal contact.
Currently, such fouls against eligible receivers result in a five-yard penalty and an automatic first down. The change would make it a simple five-yard foul, like offside or encroachment. It result in a first down only if the penalty yardage moves the ball past the line to gain.
The reason given for the proposal is this: “Competitive equity. Current penalty enforcement is too punitive for the defense.”
There’s currently no reason to think the proposed change will generate sufficient support to pass. Ultimately, 24 or more teams would have to vote for the change.
Quarterback is back.
After a one-year hiatus, driven by the fact that the producers couldn’t find anyone to do it, the Netflix Quarterback series will return for 2025.
Netflix announced the move on Wednesday, with a trailer featuring the three subjects of the show: Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, Lions quarterback Jared Goff, and Falcons quarterback Kirk Cousins.
Last year, the effort pivoted to a quintet of pass catchers, and it was dubbed Receiver.
The 2025 show will undoubtedly chronicle the trio of quarterbacks’ respective 2024 seasons, only one of which culminated in a playoff berth. And since the show won’t be landing until July, there’s a chance the storylines will trickle into the offseason — with Burrow pushing the Bengals to quit being so cheap with other players and with Cousins trying to finagle an exit from Atlanta.
Other obvious topics for consideration will be the December robbery of Burrow’s home by a group (allegedly) of Chilean nationals, the benching of Cousins for Michael Penix, Jr., and the failure of the Lions to get beyond the divisional round of the playoffs despite sky-high expectations.
